The Thomasville Police Department is pleased to announce it has received a $36,351.60 High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). Funding for this grant is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and is awarded based upon the partnership with GOHS in helping to reduce crashes and prevent injuries and fatalities across the State of Georgia.
High Visibility Enforcement combines highly visible and proactive law enforcement to target a specific traffic safety issue designed to change unlawful and dangerous driving behaviors that contribute to most of the fatal and serious-injury traffic crashes on our roads. Law enforcement efforts are combined with visibility elements and public notification on the enforcement campaign to educate the public on traffic safety and promote voluntary compliance with the law.
“The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and our partners continue to implement programs designed to save lives and promote safe driving behaviors,” Allen Poole, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said. “We can ask everyone to help our state and nation reach zero traffic deaths by driving safe speeds, always wearing a seat belt, keeping the focus on the road and not the phone, and never operating a vehicle under the influence of any substance that impairs your ability to drive.”
“In 2022, Driving While Under the Influence (DUI) arrests in Thomasville increased by 48% and fatal crashes doubled,” noted former Pollice Chief John Letteney. “Traffic complaints from our community increased significantly, as did requests for additional traffic enforcement, education and awareness. Through this grant, the Thomasville Police Department will have an enhanced ability to focus on traffic safety by implementing technology, deploying additional educational, awareness and enforcement equipment, and focusing on traffic enforcement in areas where we have experienced increased wrecks as well as community complaints. We appreciate the partnership with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to enhance traffic safety in Thomasville.”
As law enforcement partners in the Operation Zero Tolerance DUI and Click It or Ticket seatbelt campaigns, the Thomasville Police Department will also conduct mobilizations throughout the year in coordination with GOHS’s year-round waves of high visibility patrols, multi-jurisdictional sobriety checkpoints.
The grant will continue through September of 2024.